GASabresIUFan

Over the cap hasn't updated anything.

After the giant cap dump of White, Poyer, Morse, Bates (trade), Harty, and Hines coupled with the loss of Davis, Dobson, Floyd and possibly Jones to free agency it was pretty clear the Bills were going younger and cheaper for this coming season. Thank G-d. However the moves created roster holes at C, 2 starting safeties, Edge rusher, DT and boundary WR, among other depth issues. With 11 draft picks, you have to figure that much of the needed depth was going to through the draft. Add that both OTs were on one year deals, and 2 of the 3 starting CBs are on one year deals, you start to get a feel for where our draft priorities maybe. However, Beane has already erased many of the starting needs by moving McGovern to center and re-signing Edwards to replace McGovern at guard. He has extended Dawkins to lock one of the two starting OTs. He has also re-signed Rapp and Epenesa to fill starter openings at S and Edge. These moves leave one starting safety job open and one starting DT still available. He also re-signed Trubisky to be Josh's backup for the next two years. Besides the two D starters, what these moves haven't done yet is fill the depth needs at RB, or finding at boundary WR, or added further depth along the D Line. How do these moves affect the draft? One note: Losing the 3rd rd comp pick is a real kick in the ........ I wouldn't be surprised to see Beane use some picks to get back into the 3rd round. QB - I can see a QB drafted late to serve as a developmental player. RB - Beane likes to draft RBs and there are some interesting RBs who will be available on day 3. I'd also still like to see Ty Johnson return. WR - I don't see Davis' replacement coming through free agency. I expect our 1st pick to be a WR. I'm also hoping they take another guy late, but that may depend on how they feel about Shorter. OL - I thought center was going to be a sneaky need, but now we could see an OG earlier than thought to compete with Edwards for the starting job. I can also see a developmental OT on day 3 especially if they aren't happy with Doyle, Anderson or Van Denmark long-term. DL - The Epenesa signing gives us 5 DL heading into next season in Oliver, Rosseau, Miller, Espensa, and Jonathan. I think they like Cline as well. Still that's 3 short of the team's needs. I'm expecting at least one DT and one Edge player in the draft, as well as another FA or two. Re-signing Jones or finding a FA replacement has to be a priority as Beane and McD like to rotate rookies in on the Dline. LB - We need a late round guy to play special teams. CB - Lewis is a special teamer and I think they have hopes Elam improves enough to take over for Douglas in a year. Still Johnson is still on the last year of his deal and we need at least one developmental player in case Johnson leaves and/or Elam doesn't develop S - I'd like to see two guys If I had to guess right now. (No idea after that) 28 - WR - Mitchell, Thomas, McConkey etc... 60 - S - Bullard, Kitchens, Bullock 127 133 143 159 162 188 199 203 248

Spotrac has us over by 4,218,171 after Josh's restructure, but before the Dawkin's extension, the Knox pay cut, and the re-signing of Lewis, Morris and Epenesa. We know Lewis' deal is 2 years for 4 million, but don't know the cap structure. Morris is 985K, and my guess is the cap is the same. Epenesa is a two year deal worth up to $20 mill with incentives and a base of $7 million in year 1. the cap structure is still unknown. The deal seems expensive to me.

How do you really feel?

With the re-signings of Lewis and Epenesa the defense is rounding out. Getting AJ back is a huge boost to the defense. He was one of the guys who steadily improved over the course of the season. Still need at least 2 safeties, a DT (or 2) and one more edge rusher.

People are complaining about a lack of "elite" talent on the Bills and then turn around and want to replace Davis with a retread. No, just No! I don't want to waste a single cap $ on any FA WRs. We have Diggs and with the development of Shakir, Cook and Kincaid, plus a healthy Knox, the 2nd boundary receiver might be Josh's 6th most popular target. Why waste cap $ there? Get a couple WRs in the draft; one early and one late, and let the chips fall where they may.

This is going to be a long day 1) Knox rework - term TBD 2) Dawkins extension - 3 years 60.5 million - cap change TBD

I love Bowers. As a UGA season ticket holder, I've seen him play many many times. However, we have Kincaid, who is a wonderful TE. No need to draft Bowers if you already have Kincaid. Now if we trade Kincaid, then..........

The Bills have 243 million invested in 35 players so far (this is net of White’s June 1 release) not including futures contracts. They lack starters at safety and along the D Line and at WR. Even if the WR comes from the draft, Beane is going to get vet help at Safety and D Line. 12 million isn’t enough to complete the roster. We are also still over the cap for Mar 13 purposes. Something has to give. Maybe we don’t have to do all of Josh’s possible 23 million, especially if Beane makes other cap related moves, such as a Dawkins extension or Knox restructure, but some of Josh’s salary will almost certainly have to be reclassified to a bonus.

So does Buffalo have elite talent? 1. QB - Josh, check 2. RB - Cook, finished 4th in the NFL in rushing, and was 3rd among RBs in total yards from scrimmage. That's pretty elite. He would have been 2nd if MCD didn't stupidly bench him for most of a game. 3. Diggs - I know people are down on Diggs, but he finished 6th in receptions and 13th in yards among WRs in 2023. I'm expecting a big "comeback" season once Beane gets him some boundary help this offseason. 4. Kincaid - As a rookie, he was 7th in receptions and 10th in yard among TE. Not elite numbers yet, but should be top 5 next year 5. Dawkins - How do you quantify how good he is and what he means to Josh and the Bills? 6. Milano - If healthy, he is one of the elite LB's in the NFL. 7. Benard - He was 12th in the NFL last season in tackles (solo and assisted) with 143 as a 1st year starter. 8. Oliver - Just read a description of him as one of the most dangerous interior rush D lineman in the NFL. That sounds pretty elite. That's a pretty good core group to work with. What will Benford and Torrence be with a few more years of experience?

Depends on the contract.

Of course he can. It would be kind of stupid. He wants to win, and without his 23 million, his team will have no depth and lousy starters on defense.

I'm surprised we haven't really seen really any movement in the cap the last few days. Spotrac has us at 12,481,829 over the cap. Once Haack gets added, that will increase overage by about 188K as Haack replaces Williamson in the top 51. I wanted to try to guestimate how Beane looks at our roster. So, I created a June 1 calculation spreadsheet with the 35 players under contract who are most likely to be on the opening day roster. That number with almost $30 million in dead cap is $243,717,329. The player breakdown is as follows: Specialists (4) Ferguson, Bass, Haack and Martin Offense (17) QB - Allen & Trubisky RB/RB - Cook & Gilliam TE - Kincaid, Knox, Morris WR - Diggs, Shakir, Shorter OL - Dawkins, Brown, Edwards, McGovern, Torrence, Anderson & Van Demark Defense (14) DL - Rousseau, Oliver, Miller, Jonathan LB - Milano, Williams, Benard, Spector CB - Benford, Douglas, T Johnson, Elam S- Rapp, Hamlin For another $4.1 you can also add Doyle (OT), Hamler (WR) and Ankou & Cline (DL)

Another couple of favorites are Atlanta airport related. I meet OJ on the tram (before he killed Nicole) in the Atlanta airport. He was lost and couldn't find his gate. I escorted him to his gate and he signed my ticket. Another time, I boarded a flight and Leon Seals was in the row next to my mine. Dr. Sack signed my boarding pass.

He's not on the Sabres. it was great. We read books and played sports outside with the neighborhood kids. We even learned to talk to other people.

We seem to read too much into tweets and verbiage. Didn’t people here get worried that Douglas was being traded or released because Beane used past tense when discussing him last season? Then a day or two later he signed a restructured deal. Dawkins isn’t going anywhere.

I have a sign in sheet from the 1948 Buffalo Bills (AAFC). My grandfather owned a dry cleaning plant by the rockpile and I assume, although don't know for sure, that is how he got the sign in sheet and gave it to my dad who left it to me.

General Roster situation based on last year's 51 player allocation. Last year's number in (x). Specialists (3) - Current 4 - Bass, Ferguson, Haack and Martin - expect Martin to get cut soon or a camp battle for the spot with Haack Offense (17 of 23) QB(2) - Current 2- Allen & Trubisky RB/FB (4) - Current 2 - Cook and Gilliam, but I think Gilliam may still be on the chopping block TE (3) - Current 3 - Knox, Kincaid and Morris WR (5) - Current 3 - Diggs, Shakir, Shorter (NHL experienced receivers Hamler & Isabella are on futures/reserve deals) OL (9) - Current 7- Brown, Dawkins, McGovern, Torrence, Edwards, Anderson and Van Denmark (Doyle returning to compete for a job) Still need 2 RB, 2 OL, and 2 WR (plus Shorter may not win a job in camp) Defense (14 of 25) DL (10) - Current 4-6 - Rousseau, Miller, Oliver, Jonathan (plus dev players Ankou and Cline) LB (5) - Current 4 - Milano, Benard, Williams and Spector CB/DB/S (10) - Current 6 - Johnson, Douglas, Benford, Elam, Rapp & Hamlin Still need as many as 6 DL (mostly DT), 1 LB, 1-2 CBs & 2-3 safeties. Bottomline: Players from free agency, the draft, developmental and futures/Reserve players are competing for 6 jobs on offense and 11 on defense. Cap Cost for the 35 listed players is currently $236.5. (Subtract approx $1 for whomever loses the Punter camp battle). If Hamler, Doyle, Cline and Ankou make the team, that brings the total to 240.6 for 38 players net of the punter camp battle).

Updated to reflect Rapp’s cap hit and the Morris signing.

@Tuco, maybe I should change my handle to "Angel Eyes"

You read this thread and it makes you realize how much potential the Bills have for next season and beyond. I've mentioned previously how we have 6 rookie or 2nd year starters last season and how all of them graded well. Kincaid, Shakir, Torrence, Benford, Benard, and Cook. All of these guys should continue to get better. Now add another good draft class and the Bills should be good for years to come. Window closed? Give me a friggin break. The best may be yet to come.

He played great last season on his weaker side. I also expect a return to 10 sacks next season when they put him back on the right edge.

in only 96 D snaps (9%), what do those stats look like if he plays 50% of the snaps.

Kincaid. I think he just scratched the surface this past season. I expect him to be well over 1000 yards this coming season assuming he stays healthy.

In hindsight the majority of Beane's moves so far except the Miller pay cut, were the easy decisions. Except Douglas, who nearly everyone expected to return, Beane cut away the 7 largest cap hit players who had dead money below their cap hits including White, Harty, Hines, Morse, Bates, White and Poyer. All 7 were on my potential cap casualties groups. The only remaining guys in those groups are Gilliam, Martin and Hamlin. None of which really generates much in the way of cap savings. The hard part is now as we still need about 30 to 40 million in cap savings to complete the roster and sign our draft picks. Granted the majority can come from restructuring Josh's deal (23 million). Another 16 million is possible through Diggs, but I'd rather see cap savings through extensions of key players like Dawkins, Oliver and T Johnson and some careful restructuring of Knox and Milano. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some changes to Diggs' deal as well.